


Reflection

by DaughterofElros



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-26
Updated: 2012-01-26
Packaged: 2017-10-30 04:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/327531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaughterofElros/pseuds/DaughterofElros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Albus lies. He sees much more than socks in the Mirror of Erised</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflection

“Professor, what do you see what you look in the mirror?”   
“I? I see myself holding a pair of thick woolen socks. Another Christmas has come and gone, and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”

*  *  *

  


After the boy left to return to his dormitory, Dumbledore turned wistfully back to the mirror. It had taken great strength of will to stay away from the mirror these long years. He had thought, that given the amount of time that had passed, and the way that time continued to wend its weaving course, that the reflection he saw in the mirror of Erised might have changed.

But this was not the case.

The image he saw reflected back from the mirror’s silvery depths was nearly identical to the one he had first seen decades ago. Two tow-headed young wizards, world-wise despite the fact that they had clearly reached their majority a few scant years past, together in a chamber with a window that overlooked the sun sinking toward the horizon, casting deep golden pools of light and lavender shadows over the rolling hills in the meadow. 

The young wizards lay, limbs twined together in the bed, their clothing— what little of it remained on their young bodies—in a state of rumpled deshabille. The elder one, who lay propped on his elbow, leaned down to trace the other man’s jawline and place a tender kiss upon his lips, and the younger man arched up to meet him.

As he watched, the scene wavered, and changed. Now, it was his own office, the vista of the Hogwarts lake and the Scottish highlands spread out below the tower window. Snow drifted gently over the landscape while a fire crackled merrily in the grate, and the leather bound book that Minerva had given him for Christmas this year perched on the corner of his desk where he had left it just hours before. In the mirror, he himself sat in one of the armchairs before the fire, its glow warming the room and the hem of his robes, and as he watched, the door to his chambers opened, and another man emerged. His hair was long, and silvery grey, and the robes he wore could easily have been Dumbledore’s own. Despite the accumulated years, he could easily identify Gellert’s proud cheekbones beneath the wizened wrinkles, and the gleam in his eyes, still familiar despite all the years. As he watched this new scene unfold, Gellert closed the distance between them to place a hand on Dumbledore’s shoulder with the obvious ease of long-practiced affection.

Alone in the disused classroom, Albus closed his eyes as he touched his own hand to his shoulder, wishing deeply that the image was real- that the man he had loved all his life were here with him tonight, waiting for him before the crackling fire in his chambers, instead of rotting in a dank wizarding prison for the unforgivable atrocities he had committed. His deepest wish, for nearly a century had been that he could have altered the course of fate, that he and his heart’s deepest desire could have had the chance to love as they had once planned.   
In the end, however, such things were not to be. Instead, there was the ever-present ghost of that pain, and the first-hand knowledge of how the Mirror of Erised could drive a man toward madness with his wanting. The honesty of such an answer was not suitable for an eleven year old boy- even one so bright and wise beyond his years as Harry. 

Socks had seemed the much safer answer, and he hoped that one day, Harry would forgive him this lie.


End file.
